The Dillon tribune., 1887-10-14
On SLEEPLESSNESS.
4 BRIEF MEDICAL LECTURE IN AN
ELEVATED CAR.

4 Physician Di>courses of Insomnia and
Its Causes, and Gives Some Good Adj
to he Erroneous.
Two men were in an elevated car on
their way down town to business. The
man next to the reporter turned to his
neiyhbor with the question:
did Yea sleep any last night?"
''No: did you:''
~ did. about three hours. When I
woke up felt more tired than when I lay
down.
"Ycs. it's pretty hard this summer for
people who have to stay in the broiling
city. But from all | hear, the folks in
the cs,nntry are not doing much better.
Ny wife's letters s,.e full OF mosquitoes
and sleeplessness.
'Gentlemen," L.ioke in u man with
gold trimmed spectacles, who looked the
physician every inch Of him, and around
the corners of whose bearded mouth q
humorous smile had been fitting during
the dialogue. ''thls talk of slceplessness
proves how seldom people will take a
medical mans advice, or even ask for it.
It's SO simple to induce sleep, with very
little trouble, that every man Of intelli-
gencc can obtain it unless he be very
sick man indeed
"Well, sir,' rcioinel the last speaker,
''if you will crafty our curiosity that far,
tell us your remedy
''As to mosquitoes my advice is: Kill
them before you go to bed. Sleep where
there is q current of air and have mus
quito netting around the betl but leave
yourself plenty of breathing space. If
suffering much from the heat, take /;
cooling bath before retiring. / find how
ever, that this talk Of slecplessness comes
in nine cases out of ten from persons Of
an unduly nervous temperament. They
they will not obtain sleep instead Of COM
posing their minds to properly receive
the soothing influence.
SEVERAL PopCLAI: ERRORS.
''If give, ut all to slceplcssness do not
smoke in the evening" and do not excite
yourself. Lie down with the firm reso-
luton to sleep, and sleep will come quite
naturally. provided the body requires it.
There's the rub. \ great many people
think there is Il cast iron rule us to the
number OF hours they ought to sleep.
That's all wrong Never try to sleep
unless you feel tired and notice that your
system wants II. -Four hours of sleep,
under certain conditions, are more ben
eficial to q man than the prOverbial nine
hours. I've had many cases in my prac-
tice which have shown me the folly of
expecting SO many hours Of sleep night
in and night out
''lt's the same with sleep as with food.
The appetite varies, and so does the desire
for sleep. Nature knows her business
best, and when man cannot sleep he very
often ought not to Sleep A few weeks
ago IL we'll known business man came to
me and wanted opiates to give him back
his usual dose of sleep. satisfied myself
pretty soon that it woull he only doing
harm 10 comply with his request. There
was nothing troubling his mind, and his
health was good. He simply had the
notion that he didn't get sleep enough, and
had begun to worry about it. gave him
few simple rules to observe, and he soon
had once more all the sleep that was good
for him without using any poisonous mar
cotics.
"Judging from my experience, the need
of sleep is very different in different per-
sons, even among those Of like habits and
equally good health. know very active
business man, a patient of mine, who re-
quires but six hours sleep, wbi !c another
one needs all of eleven hours out of the
twentyfour.'
City hall and Brooklyn bridge, E"
shouted the guard, and everybody
scrambled for the door. while the audience
marmured: "Much obliged for the lecture,
doctor New York Commercial A,lyer-
tiser.